White House counsel Don McGahn feels a fiery rage toward Rudy Giuliani, the most prominent member of President Trump’s outside legal team, according to a report.
”Kelly [has] been trying to get rid of Rudy for two months,” a Trump adviser outside of the White House said in an interview with Vanity Fair, referring to White House chief of staff John Kelly. “And Don McGahn hates Rudy with intensity of 1,000 burning suns.”
The comments follow a range of contradictory interviews Giuliani has given in recent days, which have left many political and legal pundits wondering whether he is helping or hurting his presidential client.
Giuliani’s remarks seem to indicate a shift in his rhetoric around accusations leveled at Trump regarding possible collusion with Russia in the lead-up to the 2016 election, saying “collusion is not a crime” rather than simply denying that there was cooperation.
[Shepard Smith: Rudy Giuliani is making a ‘straw man argument’ by saying collusion isn’t a crime]
Giuliani also mentioned a meeting held to prepare for the controversial June 2016 Trump Tower discussion between senior campaign officials and a Kremlin-linked lawyer before adding it was “a figment” of Michael Cohen’s imagination. Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, has never publicly spoken about the preparatory conversation. But he is now reportedly considering talking to special counsel Robert Mueller about Trump having foreknowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.
“Trump thinks he’s saying too much,” a Republican Trump ally told Vanity Fair.
“Trump likes that Rudy is a fighter,” another source said. “He knows there’s a give and take. The give is Rudy is going to fight for him. The take is that you’re going to get some crazy, too.”
The magazine additionally reported that Trump is feeling personally hurt by Cohen’s withdrawal of support, with Trump’s former fixer once claiming he would take a bullet for the president.
